56th death anniversary of Patras Bukhari

An educationist, man of letters, a diplomat and one of the most renowned writer of Pakistan Patras Bukhari was born in 1898 in Peshawar. The man who was fluent in Hindko (regional languae) as it was his mother’s mother tongue, had a passion to marvel in different languages. He learnt Pashto, Persia and Urdu in school and then learnt English also. He was so good in English at school that once the then Chief commissioner and author of famous book Tech-yourself Pushto grammar, Roos Keppel visited his school and Patras gave him a welcome address. Keppel was so impressed by Patras that he wrote a remark on his book stating “I wish I could speak Pushto as well Pir Ahmed Shah speaks English”.

The man with a treasure of knowledge moved to Lahore in 1916 and joined Government Collage Lahore from he did masters and also become the Editor of collage magazine Ravi. Patras excelled in Urdu litreture during his stay in Government Collage Lahore and wrote many humorous essays but his real passion was English and he went to England to study English Literature in Cambridge University. He was appointed as a Muslim civil servant on his return from England, who worked as a director of All India Radio and after partition he served as the principal in Government Collage Lahore.

Patras Bukhari was a very competitive person, who had an eager to lead ahead in life. He also served as the speech writer of the first prime minister of Pakistan Nawab Liaquat Ali Khan and after his assassination he was sent to United Nations as a permanent representative of Pakistan in 1950, where he served for 8 years.One of the most notable asset of the country died on 5^th December 1958,  died in New York due to a cardiac attack.

Government of Pakistan acknowledged his immense contribution by honoring him with the one of the biggest civil award of the country Hilal-e-Imtiaz in 2003 after four decades of his demise.